Bobbie, I am amazed and saddened that you were not contacted by either the Council or the subcontractor working for the Council to gain permission to enter your property. In this as a bare minimum they have failed to meet their own standards of customer service laid out in their Customer Service Charter;
Quote:
Promoting the Shire of Mt Magnet
Inform customers of programs, priorities and service standards implemented by the Shire of Mt Magnet.
Implement processes that provide regular identification of the needs and expectations of the customer.
Develop and use performance measures and benchmark on a regular basis that indicates the extent to which the Shire of Mt Magnet meets the needs of the customer.
A total commitment from all Council employees to deliver best practice customer service.
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(Taken from Shire of Mt Magnet Policy Page 39 of 39 (M:/Personal Data/Ceo/My Documents/Policy Document/Policy Manual 17th June, 2005))
By entering your property without permission the subcontractor has trespassed, no grey area there if there has been no contact between yourself and Council with regards the tree works.
We have undertaken a large number of Council tree jobs up here in NQ and there is always interaction with the property owner, never have we gone onto someones property without their permission, its common sense to get that permission I repeat am amazed and saddened that the subcontractor has not behaved properly in this regard.
The pruning wound indicates that a very large primary scaffold limb has been removed, despite the very resiliant and tolerant nature of all Ficus (probably more resiliant than any other tree species) that will have a major impact on the long term health and of course growth of your tree.
I have to tell you Bobbie that the final cut that has been made, ignoring all the (very important) issues of trespass and non communication, is in fact about as close to the proper target pruning cut as could be made. Now before you stop reading in a rage.....I'm not saying that the limb removal was justified or defendable, I don't know what the reasons for that cut were, just that the cut itself suggests that the person making it had some awareness of natural target pruning.
What should have happened was that the Council should have sent out an officer to discuss with you their desire to reduce the tree on the fence side, then the two of you could have reached some agreement on how much you would permit to be pruned off and the Council could put forward their arguement as to why they wished to reduce the tree further. Since you indicate there are no power lines, and its not clear what is on the other side of the fence I really have no clue as to why any pruning was necessary at all.
The accepted international standard is no more than 25% of the live canopy cna be removed from a mature tree, and for qualified experienced Arborists this % is only a guide, removing even 20% of the live canopy from a mature tree is very very severe! and requires a good deal of justification.
The Dividing Fences Act, upon which the common law principals relating to vegetation growing over the property line derive from permits the removal of vegetation
up to the property line, not beyond. Any cutting to be done beyond the property boundary requires permission to be gained from the property owner...there are exceptions made in the case of a court order etc...
Can't help but feel this is a case of total communication breakdown on the part of the Council, given the events you describe. My advice would be to contact the Council and try to get some kind of satisfactory explaination as to what has happened and why. Legally there are a number of avenues you could pursue but I would try the direct approach first. BTW letters and emails are the way to go..paper trails for use in any possible court action.